reached the Manistogee hotel.

"Now," said Bannon, "we'll have time to rub down the mare and feed her
before I'm ready to go back."

Sloan stared at him for a moment in unfeigned amazement. Then slowly he
shook his head. "All right, I'm no quitter. But I will say that I'm glad
you ain't coming to Ledyard to live."

Bannon left the supper table before Sloan had finished, and was gone
nearly an hour. "It's all fixed up," he said when he returned. "I've
cinched the wharf."

They started back as they had come, in silence, Bannon crowding as low as
possible in his ulster, dozing. But he roused when the mare, of her own
accord, left the road at the detour for the ford.

"You don't need to do that," he said. "The bridge is fixed." So they drove
straight across, the mare feeling her way cautiously over the new-laid
planks.

The clouds were thinning, so that there was a little light, and Bannon
leaned forward and looked about.

"How did you get hold of the message from the general manager?" asked
Sloan abruptly.

"Heard it. I can read Morse signals like print. Used to work for the Grand
Trunk."

"What doing?"

"Boss of a wrecking gang." Bannon paused. Presently he went on.

"Yes, there was two years when I slept with my boots on. Didn't know a
quiet minute. Never could tell what I was going to get up against. I never
saw two wrecks that were anything alike. There was a junction about fifty
miles down the road where they used to have collisions regular; but they
were all different. I couldn't figure out what I was going to do till I
was on the ground, and then I didn't have time to. My only order was,
'Clear the road--and be damn quick about it.' What I said went. I've set
fire to fifty thousand dollars' worth of mixed freight just to get it out
of the way--and they never kicked. That ain't the kind of life for me,
though. No, nor this ain't, either. I want to be quiet. I've never had a
chance yet, and I've been looking for it ever since I was twelve years
old. I'd like to get a little farm and live on it all by myself. I'd raise
garden truck, cabbages, and such, and I'd take piano lessons."

"Is that why you quit the Grand Trunk? So that you could take piano
lessons?" Sloan laughed as he asked the question, but Bannon replied
seriously:--

"Why, not exactly. There was a little friction between me and the master
mechanic, so I resigned. I didn't exactly resign, either," he added a
moment later. "I wired the sup